https://github.com/jakofranko/glossa

A naming language generator
https://github.com/jakofranko/glossa

Last synced: about 2 months ago
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A naming language generator

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/jakofranko/glossa
• Owner: jakofranko
• Created: 2017-03-13T22:47:14.000Z (almost 8 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2017-09-05T23:32:11.000Z (over 7 years ago)
• Last Synced: 2024-10-13T12:26:54.912Z (2 months ago)
• Language: Ruby
• Homepage:
• Size: 32.2 KB
• Stars: 1
• Watchers: 3
• Forks: 0
• Open Issues: 0
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md

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README

        
[![Gem Version](https://badge.fury.io/rb/glossa.svg)](https://badge.fury.io/rb/glossa)

Note: Version 1.0.0 is an (almost) direct port of [mewo2's JavaScript naming-language generator](https://github.com/mewo2/naming-language). These initial ideas are his, and I have changed very little of the actual inner-workings (other than basically turn it into a class). I would _*highly*_ encourage everybody to go and checkout his original repo (link above), [read his documentation on how the language generator works](http://mewo2.com/notes/naming-language/), and [follow @unchartedatlas](https://twitter.com/unchartedatlas)

## Recent Updates

* v1.1.0 - Added import/export functionality! Now you can save your languages for later

* v1.0.3-1.0.5 - gemspec description changes (way to go RDoc Markdown processor, you're nothing like the others. I hope you feel special)

* v1.0.2 - Minor re-factor moving `Glossa::Language` into its own file, removed some debug statements, and fixed a bug that was generating morphemes with a key of `nil`

## Installation

`gem install glossa`

## Usage

`Glossa` is a module that holds the API for a "naming language generator generator."

You can create a basic language via `lang = Glossa::Language.new`, a random language by `lang = Glossa::Language.new(true)`, or you can create a language with specific rules by passing in a hash: `Glossa::Language.new(false, options)`

Additionally, you can create an instance of a new language by importing a JSON language file: `lang = Glossa::Language.import(path)`

Creating an instance of `Language` like this will provide you with a name/word generator that follows the specific rules for syllables, phonemes, morphology, orthography etc. that were defined in initialization.

Generate a new name: `lang.make_name([optional type])`. This will create a new name constructed using a mash of typed and un-typed phonemes.

Generate a new word: `lang.get_word([optional type])`. Will create a simpler than a name but unique word.

Passing in a type will generate phonemes that have only that type in order to create words that sound unified.

At any time, you can export a JSON file with the state of your language generator (including all the words and names you've already generated) by `lang.export(path)`.

### Example Usage

`lang.make_name("tree")`

`lang.make_name("city")`

`lang.make_name`

`lang.get_word("city")`

`lang.get_word`

## TODO

I'll go ahead and put the same ideas as mewo2 had for his language tool, and add some of my own too:

* Synchronic sound changes: rules which change some of the sounds depending on context (e.g. German /d/ becomes /t/ at the end of a word, Latin /k/ becomes /ʧ/ before /i/ or /e/)

* Historical sound changes: start with an 'ancestral form' and evolve the word systematically. Do this in multiple ways to produce a family of languages.

* Generated scripts: why should a generated language use the Roman alphabet? How do these people write things among themselves? Invent an alphabet (or similar) and show how the names are really spelled.

* Better grammar: break our morphemes out into roots and modifiers, and come up with some rules about how they're combined